> I'm surprised that the original warrants were signed in the first place.

No, no surprise there.

Cops/Sheriffs are not the only corrupt arm of the criminal justice system. The whole system is messed up.

It's a lot easier to get rid of a cop or a sheriff, than a judge too; no shock that the rot really sets in on the bench. Then, there's the reality that many judges are political appointees.

> Do police pay for damages in cases where a raid is excessive force?

Generally speaking no. Even if it looks really bad and they honestly want to make amends, they wont as doing so may be seen as an admission of wrongdoing either usable in or encouraging of a lawsuit. As a general rule, damage done during the execution of a warrant will not be covered by the police or their insurance provider.

They're generally sued actually, and when they really fucked up they pay a LOT as a result.

> they pay a LOT as a result.

They don't pay a bit. We, on the other hand, pay and don't receive value for our money.

That... is a good point. I forgot that it's taxpayers suing ourselves.

Goddamn it.

Except that many/most local governments are in turn covered by insurance. So suing them is not fundamentally different than suing a private citizen with similar insurance. Both costs are born by the pool of insurance purchasers, private and public.

The insurance is likely owned by "us" anyways through our mutual funds, retirement plans, etc. And high insurance fees come out of our pocket directly as well by making such policies more expensive in the next city.

The issue though is that it's not the pockets of the guilty. Officers are almost entirely shielded from the legal and financial costs of the damage they do.

When we ask "Why do they behave like that?" the answer is because they can, and there's literally no reason for them not to. They're literally consequence free.

ITT: I learn just how pitifully limited and inaccurate my knowledge of insurance is. Is there a good place to learn more about this topic, online?

It would seem that a raid is never excessive force :/

> Do police pay for damages in cases where a raid is excessive force?

As one example, this happened near me last year: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/paramilitary-thugs-colorado-...

In fact, the whole story is a great representation of the concerns expressed in your comment - the PD literally blew up a house to catch a suspected shop lifter.

Edit: Looks like PD offered him $5,000 after the incident, and then he had to take them to federal court. Looks like the court proceedings are still going; how utterly insulting.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/03/homeowner-sues-greenwoo...

> I'm surprised that the original warrants were signed in the first place.

The warrant was signed by a judge who was not on duty at the time.